Spined
by liquified.flames
Summary: There's chaos in Camp Half-Blood. Leo wakes up siblingless; Travis discovers the meaning of "solo". Nobody knows how or why he or she is doing this, exactly. They do know two things: nobody is safe, and the traitor might just be any one of themselves. Oh, and one more thing- a certain Hero of Olympus isn't himself lately. (Author Collab: -Tribias- of Keeta-x-Tribias)


Spined **chapter one; prologue**

**HELLO! I'm so happy for this thrillerish thing to be cowritten with the one and only -Tribias- of ****_Keeta-freaking-x-Tribias_****! :D We both hope you'll enjoy the ride!**

**We don't own Percy Jackson, and enjoy this one.**

**(linebreak)**

Leo was relatively happy that morning. The night before, they'd arrived from Greece where they had closed the Doors of Death and saved Percy and Annabeth. And a week or so before that, they'd successfully forged an alliance with Camp Jupiter. That was a close call, too, as Leo was possessed by a Roman spirit who, if Annabeth hadn't noticed through the change in Leo's eyes, would have destroyed part of New Rome and framed the son of Hephaestus. Luckily, she had noticed, and Piper attempted to make them stay away. She had used her charmspeak to have them identify and remove themselves from the bodies of the three boys they had possessed.

He had decided to go make some repairs on the Argo II today, as well as try to figure out the Archimedes Spheres they'd found while in Rome. All he knew about them is that they were created by a brilliant Greek, that they had responded to him, and that they would help improve his ship. Nyssa was the one that had sat by him on the late nights, when the others had gone to bed, where they would attempt to figure out the spheres.

Annabeth and her cabin had helped, but they were all preoccupied with planning battle strategies for the inevitable final battle with the Giants. There wouldn't be more than three or four Athenians that could help at a time, and most of the time, said Athenians were Annabeth, her 13-year-old sister Sarah, and whichever kid got tired of reviewing and creating battle plans for other cabins.

He entered the large bunker which he and his siblings had tried to map out and look through. But it was freaking _huge_ and they hadn't even been able to find half the pathways or manage to find the right beams without jumping from one platform from another in an attempt to figure out the maze-like suspended catwalks.

Leo called for Buford, the table.

Said table scuttled out from the tunnels that were barely explored. "Come on, we have to fix something in the engine," Leo told Buford, who wouldn't come over to help him, and instead backed into the tunnel. "Gods, Buford, I swear that wasn't Windex!" The table scuttled further into the tunnel. "Oh for the love of... Buford get over here!" Leo groaned as he started toward the table. Buford kept moving.

Buford had started going faster, and Leo was forced to run after his table, a string of words not meant to be heard by children flowing from his mouth. "Godsdammit, Buford, slow down!" Buford did not slow down. He did the complete opposite and galloped faster.

Leo caught up to the table and jumped, attempting to catch it. Buford sped up even more at the last second and Leo collapsed onto some obsidian. The table kept going. Of course, then Leo got up and ran. Fast. He was out of breath by the time he reached the table. It had stopped dead in its tracks, by the door of a room he'd never been in.

"Buford, let's go…" Leo trails off at the sight of the blood.

For Leo Valdez, manliness is officially out of the question.

(linebreak)

Two minutes earlier, he had walked into the forge in a light mood. One minute earlier, he was frustratedly chasing his diva of a table. Now, he stares at a girl's mangled body on a low, rectangular worktable and swallows back a terrified shriek.

What had happened?

A wide-eyed Leo crouches and takes in the details: her spine is completely ripped out of her back. Blood pools around her ice-cold body. The light is dim, and her face is not easy to make out.

But then he notices a small golden wire anklet, covered in scarlet, limp on her ankle.

(He knows who it is now.)

(linebreak)

A scream is heard through Camp Half-Blood- a bloodcurdling one of pure horror mixed with the agony of somebody losing a loved one, and it comes from somewhere in the woods. In the Bunker where he'd built his greatest achievement and biggest pride, a short, elf-eared, Latino son of Hephaestus cries in vain, as he grabs the girl by her shoulders. Even with blood covering her face and blocking the shiny wire accessory, he _knows_ it's her. He had only created that anklet because she so loved the way certain wires looked so beautiful together, _intertwined_, heading for the same goal, yet doing such different things.

He knows it was his sister. He knows it was Nyssa.

In less than a second it all became too much, and Leo opens his mouth and lets out another painful scream that is loud enough for everyone to hear, but he doesn't care. No, he doesn't care who hears him because his favorite sister Nyssa is on a place where she could have easily been creating some wonderful invention but instead, she's dead on _top_ of it and he doesn't even know what the Hades had happened.

He takes her by the shoulders again and shakes her, pleading, screaming her name, crying. "Nyssa, wake up!" Leo cries in delirious sobs. "Nyssa, please!"

The girl doesn't move.

His hair has ignited, but he doesn't notice. He hardly notices anything until they arrive.

The first of the campers arrive at the door of the bunker and Leo can hear them stumbling across failed inventions and heavy prototypes. They get to the door, and Jason and Annabeth are the earliest to appear in the area. Jason's eyes get very wide and Annabeth takes a sharp breath through her teeth as she begins to survey the scene.

Around the room are signs of struggle- Nyssa's blood on the walls, on the floor, lobbed across desks, all in places where she had fought her murderer. Leo doesn't take notice of any of it- or of anything, for that matter. He cries for Nyssa, for the sister that was _always_ there for him.

Annabeth holds Jason back from comforting his friend, because she knows that _holy Hades_ he wouldn't understand, though he tries, and Leo really needs somebody who does. Neither of them are alarmed nor afraid of the flames.

Leo is crying and screaming and shaking her, with her name a constant shriek in the quiet of Bunker Nine. It doesn't take long for somebody else to arrive, somebody who could do something to help. By now, Leo doesn't notice anything but himself and his favorite sister. He only notices the outside world when a pair of hands cautiously pulls him away from her. At the touch, Leo swats, his hands flaming, adding to the brightness caused by his already-ignited hair.

His brother Jake hisses at the burns, but continues to try to pull his brother away from her. "She's dead, Leo. She's dead. Let go!" He doesn't mean for his voice to rise to a yell, but it does.

The room turns dark again and the only illumination was the flashlight Nyssa had dropped during her struggle. Leo's burning flames are snuffed out and he begins to _sob._

Jake takes his brother into a hug and tries not to cry. He had been here longer, seen more deaths, took in more tragedies, sure- but there was nothing he had ever witnessed that was as terrible as seeing his funny, humorous brother in tears, crying and screaming for his dead sister. Yet he knew he had to be strong, strong for both of them, strong for his whole cabin.

The door bursts open and Will Solace and Lou Ellen arrive, hand in hand, as Travis and Connor walk briskly to the area. Christopher yells in horror and Shane and Miranda turn white and Butch the rainbow guy almost faints and Harley, poor Harley, screams and dashes away, sobbing.

Almost all the counselors are in the room now. _Where's Percy?_ thinks Leo hysterically, because holy Hephaestus he _knows_ Percy would have been one of the first to respond.

It's been maybe half an hour since Leo had found his sister dead and gone, and by now he'd almost cried himself out. Right now, the only tears remaining were those on the floor, on his and Jake's shirts, and in the small trickle coming from his eyes. The sound of Harley's sobs seems to impact him even more.

Their sister was- dead, and neither of them could do anything about it.

Leo doesn't know how he finds his voice again, but when he speaks it's cold and bland and very, very deadly calm.

"We have to call a counselor meeting," he says, surprised at the lack of hollowness and despair in his tone because that's exactly what he's feeling inside right now.

Jason nods briskly and speeds off with Piper, and the rest of the counselors trickle out the door and their other siblings have gone off to break the news to other campers.

Annabeth is the last to go. "We'll find the criminal," she promises. "We won't let this go quietly."

-Line Break-

When Chiron hears about Nyssa, it's the first time Leo ever sees him scared. The old centaur turns very pale and leaves the room quickly in the direction of the bunker, coming back paper-white and with tears sparkling in his eyes.

The tone of the room is incredibly somber, and everyone looks apologetically at Leo, like that would make any difference. Percy is present, but he looks distracted, staring off into space instead of at Leo.

Somehow, this makes Leo feel more uncomfortable than when the others are staring directly at him.

Piper speaks up numbly. "Who could have done this?" The others, for once, agree to this, and they murmur in confusion.

"Nobody outside could have come in and done it," reasons Katie Gardner with a frown. "Please don't tell me there's another traitor-" She says the word traitor uncomfortably, but everybody knows it's true. "-in our midst."

"There's another traitor in our midst," responds Percy dryly, and at the same time Clarisse protests, "Silena wasn't a traitor!"

Annabeth scowls fiercely at Percy. "That didn't help matters!" she scolds in irritation, as a single, horrible thought flashes through Leo's head, but he stamps it down.

"Where were you earlier, anyway, Percy?" Annabeth questions, though she of all people should know that he was visiting Sally and after that had to go set some mermaids free from nets. Piper calmly reminds her of this, and Leo's thought is pushed even deeper down.

More and more accusations fill the room, until Leo just yells, "ENOUGH!"

The room grows quiet, and suddenly counselors are forced to peel their hands off the table, because it's _heating up_. Leo knows he's unconsciously starting to set the Ping-Pong table on fire, but this is one of the times in his life when Leo r_eally, really, really_ doesn't care.

"Leo!" exclaims Piper. "Leo, stop!"

Fine. He wills the energy to go back into his body.

Chiron looks at the disoriented campers in concern. "Meeting adjourned, heroes," he instructs. "Meet back here tomorrow, after breakfast. Immediately report all suspicious activity to the Big House, and put the camp on lockdown. Alert the other campers in your cabins. But, please spare the younger ones the more..." He pauses uncomfortably. "...intricate details," Leo knows Chiron is trying to maintain order, but his tail swishes from side to side worriedly and it really isn't working.

"Also, please do not go around accusing each other and each other's cabins," he says, while giving slightly inconspicuous pointed looks to Annabeth, Clarisse La Rue, Katie Gardner, the Stolls, and everyone else who'd accused each other of treachery through the Titan war, and through the meeting.

The counselors sigh collectively and rise as one, some nodding and others looking blankly at the gray sky out the window.

Leo is the last to leave the rec room. He knows he isn't as experienced as some other campers, but only one thing is certain, and he knows this for sure:

A traitor is among Camp Half-Blood, and Nyssa is only a warning.

**spined**

***grins evilly* Of course, Nyssa is only a warning.**

**Please give some reviews and feedback! :)**

**Keeta-x-Tribias and liquifiedflames**


End file.
